Isabelle Massieu (1844–1932) was a French writer and traveler who became the first French woman to visit Nepal. Beginning in 1892, she undertook a series of journeys from her native Paris that took her to nearly all parts of Asia and resulted in the publication of several popular books. Népal et pays himalayens (Nepal and the Himalayan countries) is a first-hand account of her 1908 voyage from the Sutlej Valley in northern India across Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim to Tibet. Massieu describes the people, landscape, and architecture of the ...

The Dooar (or Duār) War of 1864-65 began as an attempt by the authorities in British India to annex from Bhutan the territory known as Duārs in order to stop what they claimed were incursions into India from Bhutan. David Field Rennie, who participated in the conflict as a military surgeon, wrote this book on his four-month voyage back to England. Bhutan, which is located at the eastern end of the Himalaya mountain range, was at that time one of the world’s most isolated countries. Rennie’s intention was ...

Published in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) in 1865, this volume contains four narratives relating to the interactions in the 19th century between British India and the Kingdom of Bhutan. The first is the report of Sir Ashley Eden (1831–87), a British administrator who, in 1863, was sent on a mission to conclude a treaty of peace and friendship with Bhutan. Eden’s mission failed and was followed by the outbreak of the Anglo-Bhutan War of 1864–65 (also known as the Dooar or Duār War), in which Bhutan was forced ...

This early-20th century map shows the British Empire in India, a complex political structure that was made up of provinces directly ruled by Britain and the Native--or Princely--States, which were ruled indirectly through Indian sovereigns subject to British suzerainty. Also shown on the map are the French and Portuguese enclaves, the independent states of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), which was under British rule but not part of the Indian Empire. India became independent in 1947, but was partitioned into the states of India ...